Portugal’s institute for blood and transfusions (IPST) is in crisis.
In the course of a year, it has lost 12,829 donors, reports national tabloid Correio da Manhã.
But more to the point, it is haemorrhaging money.
The institute’s liquid losses for 2016 have been pegged at €12.2 million – with public entities the largest debtors.
Management says IPST needs an “urgent reduction of the debts of State clients and subsidies to cover transplants”.
In its financial report for last year, the organisation explained that it collected 6,858 units of blood less than the year before, but that this “accompanies the national and international tendency to use less units of blood”.
In other words, the gradual drop-off/ drop-out of donors may not be as serious as it sounds.
Explains CM, the national register still includes 170,584 donors.
The ‘crisis’ is much more one of dwindling finances which see IPST debts to its own suppliers forever escalating, along with the amount of time it takes to pay them.
As of today (Monday), the health ministry had not offered any kind of explanation or indication of how the crisis will be handled.
